Green Options

The United States Postal service is the second largest civilian employer in the country, after Wal-Mart. Over 650,000 are employed by the USPS, which utilizes some 260,000 vehicles. While 43,000 of these vehicles run on E85 fuel, they still manage to get an average of just 9 mpg. Pretty terrible gas mileage, and E85 made with today’s methods isn’t all that much better when it comes to carbon emissions anyway.

Perhaps that is why the government is considering granting the USPS $2 billion to electrify 20,000 delivery vehicles. And if there is any government agency that could benefit from electric vehicles, it is definitely the USPS.

Hyundai/Kia is one of my favorite automakers right now, probably because they used to be one of my most hated. But both brands have come a long way in terms of style and quality, and are now poised to take a bigger role on the world automotive stage.

Kia in particular seems to be branding itself the more thrilling cousin of Hyundai, as some of their recent concept cars have shown. This latest teaser of the plug-in hybrid “Ray”, as it is being called, doesn’t reveal much, but certainly makes me want to see more.

There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of small niche-market car makers across the globe. Some cater to the extremely wealthy, while others are more dedicated to the pursuit of performance. But as the global market shifts away from petrol and towards electric cars even these smaller shops are considering EV projects.

Take Caterham for example. Well known in racing circles, this company has essentially survived for decades by building variants on just one type of car, the Series 3 Lotus Seven. Traditionally powered by English-built Ford Kent or Cosworth engines, head honcho Ansar Ali suggested in an interview with Autocar that they maybe, possibly, could-be adding an electric variant to their lineup.

I loved LEGOS back in “the day”. I would spend hours upon hours building and looking for just the right pieces to complete my architectural nightmare. Then I would always knock it down in my terrifying rendition of Godzilla, just ’cause. LEGOS are still awesome, but you can’t exactly live in a house made of them as James May of Top Gear proved.

Anyway, the whole LEGOS analogy is the first thing I thought of when I read about the Trexa EV platform. It is basically a completely integrated, all-wheel drive electric skateboard that you can build your own kind of car upon. Pretty freakin’ cool, right?

Mass transit is often associated with limitations. People have to plan when they leave based on when their bus, streetcar, light-rail, or commuter rail line leaves. They don’t have the ‘pleasure’ of circling around a parking lot trying to find the spot closest to the front door. They can’t easily stop off at McDonald’s for a healthy bite to eat. And so on.

Well, those things may provide a little bit of limitation, but there are other factors that can give you more freedom as well.

For example, the average transit rider in the US now saves $9,242 a year by riding transit (approximately $770 a month). I could think of at least a few things to do with $9,242! Things I couldn’t do without it.

In New York, you can actually save about $1,147 a month or $13,765 a year. The top 20 US cities in average savings are listed below.

But there are more benefits to riding transit, too.

4 million fewer vehicles. This is the first year there was such a large decline in automobile ownership since the US Department of Transportation (DOT) began modern recordkeeping in 1960.

How did this come about? What were the main causes?

Financially speaking, electric cars are a tough sell in today’s economic climate. The handful of pure-electric cars for sale right now, like the Tesla Roadster, cost more than most people gross in two years of work. Even when you apply generous federal and state tax incentives, like those in Colorado, most of us simply can’t afford an electric car right now. With time, prices will come down, but how long must we wait for an affordable electric car that actually looks like a car?

If Better Place’s plan works, a true electric car could hit the West Coast of the U.S. as soon as 2012 for $20,000 or less before any tax incentives are applied.

Most of the technology we take for granted in our daily drivers had to work a long, harrowing course on the race track before every making it to our driveways. The money and competition that fuels high speed races often perfects technology on the track before making it to market. This fact has not gone unnoticed in the Green Revolution and why it needs to cozy up to some speed freaks and show the world that fast and green go hand in hand.

The organizers of this years TTXGP electric motor cycle race realize this perhaps better than anyone. Since the TTXGP was such a hit, they are kicking it up a notch with an all-electric race through the Levellois bourough of Paris. Sweet!

A major obstacle standing in the way of many electric car start-ups is volume. Making money on cars is difficult, all the more so when you’re appealing to a niche market (for now). You’ve got to convince people to place pre-orders for cars they can’t even test drive too, not exactly an easy sell. That just means electric car dealers have to get creative.

Meyers Motors is offering a unique approach to pricing their two-seat electric car, the DUO. For every 200 pre-orders they get, they’ll knock $1,000 off of the MSRP of $29,995, all the way down to their goal of $24,995…and that is before any federal or local tax credits.

Topping yet another bicycle list, Amsterdam is #1 here because of the great bicycle photos to follow along with the fact that 40% of traffic is bicycle traffic in Amsterdam and the city is full of bicycle facilities, including a 10,000-bicycle parking garage at its train station.

Amsterdam may not have as high a percentage of bicycle commuters as its Dutch neighbor to the north, Groningen, or as much bike-crazy counter-culture as Portland (Oregon), or the largest bicycle sharing program in the world like in Paris, or naked bicycle rides like in Barcelona and Portland, but compared to these and other world cities I think it is pretty well established now that it and Copenhagen are in a tight competition for the top position. Amsterdam tops this list because of the great photos to follow.

The photos here show love and kisses on bikes, tons of bike parking, creative family bikes, flower bikes, and various cargo bikes, among other things.

Everyone rides a bike in the Netherlands, even Santa Clause (or Sinterklaas). Riding a bike doesn’t take away from women’s fashion at all either, but adds to it here. Biking is a part of normal life — perhaps that is why the Dutch are so calm.

A remarkable new study predicts that at least 14 million electric cars will be zooming around the US by 2020, and reckons that EVs could account for a startling 75 percent of all light-duty miles driven by 2040.

The ambitious claims form part of an in-depth study, called the Electrification Roadmap, backed by a coalition of business leaders including Nissan, FedEx, Coda Automotive and Coulomb Technologies.